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08 May 2018
A major piece of recent research by the Smith Institute suggests that, in the social rented sector in England alone, there are over 1.6 million people over 55 years of age; representing almost 45% of all socially rented households. The challenge being faced here is to be able to provide safe social housing for those who are older and/ or disabled, but the truth is that the budget may not be able to cope with forecasted growth in this area.
One main reason for this prediction is that this number will continue to rise rapidly over the next 20 years as the significant bulk of these people now in middle age enter their later years. This means the total age over 55 living in social housing is projected to increase from 1.6 million to over 2.2 million by 2035.
One item of particular concern to social landlords is that a large percentage of the extra 6.3 million over 60’s who will be living in the UK by 2035 will already be living in social housing or will be looking to move into social housing from other tenures. 40% of those new residents will have some degree of disability or manner of ailment. So how do we rise to this challenge? One way we plan to tackle the ageing crisis is with our very own Bathroom for Life. With an AKW Bathroom for Life the bath becomes an item of furniture. Remove for those tenants whose limited mobility meaning they need a wet room, and quickly replace when a new tenant with a family requires a bath space.
You can see our bathroom for life plan here. Or you can find out all about the challenges and the solutions within our Whitepaper, which you can request from here.
